snap judgments

So, I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about Secret Invasion #2 yet (because, let’s face it…. after #1 it was kind of a let down) because with summer coming up, we’ve hit promotion season at ye olde store.  So this means heading out to events like the Santa Barbara Social Game Night to talk about the kind of games we sell at our store and demo something a little more different than your average board game, putting up a booth at the nearby university to promote the store with leftover free comics and a fine selection of the kind of floppies the college kids can dig, just generally getting the word out which is one of the best things about this little medium of ours.

I like comics and I like telling people I like comics.  I like getting people to like comics with me.  it’s all part of the show, you know.  So why I may not be on the snap or judgments of late, know that I’m doing my part.  And reading comments.

This is what I recommend to folks who’ve come out of the Iron man movie and just so happen to make it to the comic shop.  Believe it or not, we actually sold four Iron Man: Extremis TPs the weekend Iron man came out which I will consider a huge success.   Since it’s newer, the tech updated as only Warren Ellis can provide and the art something special, it’s probably the better TP to siggest because it serves as a gateway to the current Iron Man and can keep people hip.  The of course, two all new series: one is an ongoing and the other a mini for those people who ‘don’t want to get into comics per se’.

My job, ladies and gents.

Okay, so bear with me on this one. I’m actually not into Harry Potter in the slightest (I’m one of those jerks who shouts they read it first when it was called THE BOOKS OF MAGIC!), but their fandom is absolutely amazng. The people who adore these books have produced some of the most inspiring and downright horrifying tales in the history of people who take fantasy too far. It’s great to watch, especially if you don’t have any emotional investment in it (which is why I’ll start throwing chairs if we don’t get the REAL Black Bolt back to the Marvel Universe).

So, quick quick version: a fan of the Harry Potter series sets up a website called the ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’ that puts all the information from the books in order. People love it and info geeks go wild; even the author JK Rowling thinks the whole thing is pretty faboo becase she gives them a shoutout for being so thorough with her information. All is well and the fan who runs the place (with the help of a few volunteers and other writers) thinks he’s got a little crown on his head and is full of pride.

A lot of pride, since he wants to publish the site as an official book. Not only is this a little odd since some of the material isn’t his as it was written by other authors, but… let’s face facts: when asked by JK Rowling if he could, she said no. That’s it, right?

Nope! Yesterday it all went to court in a big show of who has the right to the material, who’s being unfair and who’s just out for cash. Thanks to Fandom Wank for keeping me updated on this whole affair; contributor ‘cleolinda’ has brought the wise face of Galadriel to the lawsuit which makes it doubly classy.
There’s been everything from pie charts to snarky comments from the plaintiff and, despite her tearful admittance that this whole affair is effecting her writing, I can see how this should have been an open-and-shut case. No matter how you jazz it up, taking someone else’s info and arranging it alphabetically doesn’t make it yours. It’s great that he did that and I’m sure without this legal nonsense the author might have given a nod his way (technically, she already did!), but selling it is a whole other matter.

So, fair internet info geeks, let this be a lesson. While we hail you for giving us an online version of the Handbook to the Marvel Universe, or a comprehensive look at Hulk villains (to say the least), don’t publish these things and call it your own?

BONUS! Diane Duane gives us our own JKR vs. RDR lawsuit widget! Be kept up to date on how serious you can take the words “Lord Voldemort”!

JJ Abrams’ Star Trek pushed back until 2009.

Somedays, the ol’ blog-o-net makes me want to toss my laptop from a very high cliff.  Somedays, I’m trying to enjoy my funny books at the store and find myself politely nodding this this week’s blog-o-versy over what terrible thing DC is doing or how Joe Quesada slapped you like Zsa Zsa Gabor on a DUI charge.  And yes, somedays this makes it damn hard to get on the keys.  I take breaks.  Long walks in the park.  Watch a sunset.  Read Superman/Batman: Saga of the Super Sons.

But the best cure for the RAPED CHILDHOOD blues is other people.  I honestly feel better when I recommend a book I can guarantee will knock someone’s socks off or talk to someone who really knows what they want out of a comic and celebrates that, rather than laments over what’s not there.  Now I haven’t said anything about recent cover art on a certain Playboy magazine, despite having boobs and opinions, but everything I wanted to say, everything that could possibly cheer me up about blog-o-drama was eloquently and upstandingly said by Lisa Fortuner.

So thanks, Lisa (if I can call you Lisa?).  I needed that.

A really cheap link joke, brought to you by Wikipedia.

Okay! Victory dance aside, we’re back! And almost as good as new which is why I’m coming to you, Gentle Reader, with really… a good question.

Where do you read comics? On your lunch break? On the bus or other public transport? Do you buy a ‘Reader’s Copy’ especially for the job? Do you read your comic then slip it into a bag and board and file it away or does it linger about the house for a bit until you remember to put it away? Do you have a box just for banking books until you get enough to read in a block? How do we read these things?

Thinking about it like this, I can kind of understand how the average Joe off the street can find themselves off-kilter when approaching comics and normally just grab the trade; the fact I can think of … what, eight obsessive-compulsive ways to read and/or store comics as opposed to the universally understood book might be what’s going through their heads as well.  After all, these things are going to be worth MONEY some day, right?  Nobody wants to be yet another older customer, longing for yesteryear before their parents threw out their obvious goldmines.

So, how do you the Comic Fan(tm) read your books?  Do you dare eat lunch with them?  Do you save them all into a storyline or just grab and go, turning pages in the car after you leave the shop?

Personally, I’m a lucky daughter-of-a-gun who gets to work around these things on a daily basis.  No, that doesn’t mean I read in the store while at the counter (seriously!  stop looking at me like that!), but that means I can grab a bit of time in the back with some books, take them with me at lunch, borrow them overnight (bringing them back in the morning like the special star employee I am) and generally bring comics with me wherever I go.  I tend to have a couple in the car, one in my bag, a TP at bedside, plenty around the living room and the computer desk, all for quick reference or perusal when whim strikes.

Where are yours read?

Much like hating people but loving gatherings (isn’t it ironic?), I get a kick out of Harry Potter fandom.  Not the books mind you, as I tried to read the first one and it just wasn’t my bag, but the people who are rabid for the world of wizards and muggles.  Without more than my few chapters’ worth of work, I know more about the franchise than honestly I should because of the loyal, creative and sometimes cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs fans.  People who’ve invested time and lightened kids’ imaginations by staging wizarding events and who encourage fandom in their kids by knitting them scarves and making their own wands and whatnot is hands down awesome;  as a die-hard Trekkie since I was wee, the time my parents spent shuffling me to a convention or helping my sew my first classic Romulan uniform are special and certainly encouraged me to be the person I am today.

But then… there are the other fans.

The best spot to watch people dig their own graves is Fandom Wank,  a community of people dedicated to watching people take their hobbies far too seriously and, sad and true, Harry Potter is a common topic.  With the last book released this year, the Fandom Wank folks declared the coming of the ‘Potterdämmerung‘, the fan uprising of all fan uprisings and only recently has this really bloomed.

The reason why I share it here with you kindly people is that apparently, there’s this guy in charge of  annotated resource for the books called ‘The Leaky Cauldron‘.  A fairly popular resource and reorganization of the information in the books, the webauthor decided to publish his site as a book; the problem with this is that JK Rowling had already announced that she was going to do an encyclopedia of sorts (the kind of book the Leaky Cauldron was going to do) and that a lot of the info on the site is taken directly from the books and would be a sort of plagiarism.

Now, when asked by JK Rowling and the WB (since they own the rights to movie stills and/or specific content) not to publish this book or at least show them that the Leaky Cauldron’s work wouldn’t be direct lifting, you’d think that the author would back down, show that he was doing original content and give the people who got him into this business, so to speak, their due.  Not so!  This whole mess is actually going to court and is packed to the brim with angry fans who think that JK ROWLING has completely lost it by telling the Leaky Cauldron guy he shouldn’t publish her work reorganized in alphabetical order.

More theories have come to light with fairly damning evidence that the Leaky Cauldron guy had plans that he would help Rowling with publishing her encyclopedia when the series was over and did seem to be in good favor with the multi-million dollar author, but Rowling didn’t take up his offer, he decided (and spoke loudly at a con) that the fans were taking over.

So remember, folks:  fan entitlement is everywhere.  And sometimes, it can get really nasty.

By the way, I’d like to point out to people who follow Newsarama – in the fight scene with the Skrull, Namor begins it fully clothed, and, by the time it’s over, his shirt is ripped open, and more of his naked body can be seen. I know that this will cause a letter-writing campaign of my obvious disdain for fish-men, and my desire to see fish-men injured and demeaned – even though my dad was a fish-man and I know many fish-men still.

-Bendis

Recently, I’ve been watching a particular online board with car wreck fascination and keeping a tally of how long someone can drag out an indiscretion instead of coming to an understanding and accepting both sides of an argument.  I mean, Bendis himself gets lambasted by people who just can’t let go of the ‘death’ of Hawkeye, you think the man would learn to realize if someone thinks you wrote a bad issue, it’s not the best idea to dreg it up and poke a little fun at them.  Best to let the whole thing drop and wait for Straczynski to step in the dog poo and take up arms against his detractors.

I’m sure Bendis is just in it for the lutz.

Okay, it might be all I can say on this and it’s a positive note:

BB: I made that choice very deliberately. Don’t get me wrong – I do like to keep some things off camera or panel if that will serve a particular scene or story. But in this instance, moving this off panel would have alluded that something sexual was going on or something rapey was happening.

Rapey.  It’s like truthiness, in a way.  It almost sounds kind of funny, taking the edge of a horrible topic and making it sound kind of… cute.  Rapey!  Not rape-ish, rape-esque and rape-like or even ‘a serious violation of the character’.  No, the scene’s just not rapey!  I honestly like this new word that Bendis has added to my vocabulary.  Thanks, sir.

Okay, strangest thing just happened:  I was watching an ad for the Hitman movie coming out this month and suddenly I found myself thinking about the video game was based on.  How I might want to look into it, maybe rent it from a Blockbuster, see what it’s like.  After all, the movie looks kind of cool and the storyline (or at least what I’ve gleaned from a commercial) is interesting enough to play around with in a first-to-third person shooter.

And that’s when it hit me:  does anyone feel that way when they see a trailer for a comic book adaptation?